Soon, blood sugar test for 2 in 10 secs

New Delhi: India is all set to unveil a path–breaking test for diabetes that will save both money and blood.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is almost ready with a new digital finger–pricking blood sugar machine that will not require repeated use of testing strips. It will cost less than Rs 2 per blood sample and require 1,000 times lesser blood than what glucose meters use now. Even better, it will take only 10 seconds to find out your blood glucose count.

Being developed by professor of biological sciences at BITS–Pilani, Dr Suman Kapur, the test will undergo final evaluation by July 15 and is expected to be ready for mass production by December.

This low–cost rapid test will be a boon for India, which plans to test five crore people for diabetes by the end of this year. India plans to screen all adult males above 30 years of age and pregnant women of all age groups for diabetes and hypertension in 100 districts across 21 states.

India is home to over 61 million diabetics – an increase from 50.8 million last year. Speaking to TOI from the US, Dr Kapur said, "Our device is as handy as a glucometer but with a different chemistry. The aim was to make a cellphone–size glucose testing device that is affordable ."

So how will the device work? Once we prick the finger with a needle, the red blood cells from the blood that flows in will be trapped and the plasma will be allowed to pass through. "The machine will react right then and produce a colour corresponding to glucose levels. We are using nano particles to intensify the colour using a colour to frequency censor. The reading will show up on the device," added Dr Kapur, who is dean of research at BITS–Pilani.

He said the test has been successfully tried with human samples. "Instead of strips that glucometers use now, our machine will use a capillary," he added.

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